Your Right to Know

By Jonathan Weisman and Jeremy W. PetersTHE NEW YORK TIMES • Saturday December 14, 2013 6:45 AM

WASHINGTON — A bipartisan budget deal that sailed through the House on an overwhelming
bipartisan vote is running into difficulty in the Senate, where Republicans — some furious, some
conservative and some running for office — are vowing to vote against the measure, which would
partially roll back broad spending cuts.

After two years of legislation passing the Senate with bipartisan support only to implode in a
conservative firestorm on the House floor, myriad Senate Republican grievances have combined in a
legislative twist, threatening the comity that was supposed to end the budget wars, at least for
now.

Two Republican senators with presidential aspirations — Marco Rubio of Florida and Rand Paul of
Kentucky — are actively working up opposition. Republican senators running for re-election in 2014
and facing tea party challenges all have come out no or leaning no.

Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, is angry that
his House Budget Committee counterpart, Rep. Paul D. Ryan, R-Wis., left him out of the negotiations
that produced the accord. And some Republicans cannot declare their support for the deal after the
Democrats changed the Senate’s rules and ended filibusters of presidential nominees.

Senators and aides from both parties said yesterday that they expected the two-year budget
agreement ultimately to pass next week on the strength of the House’s 332-94 vote, which lost the
chamber’s most-conservative and most-liberal members. House Speaker John Boehner was leaning on
Republican senators to come around.

Sen. Mike Johanns, R-Neb., said: “The fact of the matter is, we’ve got to face up to this. At
the end of the day, if you believe in my crystal ball, this gets the votes.”

So far, Sen. John McCain of Arizona is a declared Republican supporter, with Sen. Susan Collins,
R-Maine, a likely yes, at least to end debate and allow a final vote.

“I’m not OK with it, but I think it’s better than shutting down the government,” McCain
said.